The Golden Dome, perhaps referring to the golden one of the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, is the latest charitable fund-raising screen in Italy, not for the child victims in Gaza, but for Hamas.
The architect Mohammed Hannounof Jordanian origin, transplanted to Genoa, Italy for some time, ended up on the American “black list” of terrorist financiers. On 7 October, a year after the Hamas massacre that triggered the bloody Israeli reaction in Gaza, the well-known activist was put in the crosshairs as president ofCharitable Association of Solidarity with the Palestinian People (Abspp), a non-profit organization based in Rome. According to the Treasury Department American it’s about «a fictitious charity that ostensibly raises money for humanitarian purposes, but actually helps fund the military wing of Hamas». Hannoun he would have sent at least four million dollars to the terrorist organization since 2018. In 2021 Unicredit closed a suspicious account opened by Hannoun. And then the Italian Post Office, PayPal and international operators including Visa, Mastercard and American Express did the same. «This spring the association called “Cupola d’Oro” emerged, advertised by Hannoun on social media” says a PanoramaGiovanni GiacaloneItsTime terrorism expert from the Catholic University of Milan. «The accusations coming from Washington are very serious. They point to him as the Hamas man in Italy. Following the sanctions, the social accounts of Hannoun and its associations are no longer visible.”
The case Hannoun it is the tip of the iceberg of financing for extremist or terrorist groups, the “money trail”, which the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Bank of Italy (UIF) traces following the recommendations established by the Financial Action Task Force (Fatf) , an intergovernmental body that has been promoting strategies to combat and prevent terrorist financing since 2001. In this year’s UIF report, on the activity of 2023, we read that 297 reports have arrived at the Bank of Italy, from “financial intermediaries, professionals and other operators”. Banking institutions and the post office sent 120 reports of suspicious transactions, known by the acronym “SOS”. Down compared to 2022, but “almost a third of the reports were sent after mid-October, following the attack on 7 October”. 80 percent (239 out of 297 total) come from the central-northern Italian regions. Lombardy has the absolute record for SOS relating to the financing of terrorism (18.3 percent), followed by Lazio and Campania. According to the Bank of Italy «the southern areas most affected are those exposed to maritime migratory routes (the Sicilian coast and the eastern coasts of Calabria, Puglia and Abruzzo, with 21 SOS in total) or with greater settlement of immigrant population also coming from States at risk of terrorism (for example Campania, with 16 SOS)”. Even in Northern Italy the greatest concentration of reports, compared to the resident population, concerns “the access points of migratory flows in Italy (such as Trieste)”.
Last year the UIF received 104 information requests from abroad “relating to phenomena of suspected terrorist financing”. They largely concern names linked to “associations in the non-profit sector, in order to ascertain the presence of anomalous activities in support of groups operating in the areas of Middle Eastern conflict”. Since 2014, the UN has raised the alarm about “the abuse of non-governmental, non-profit associations and charitable organizations by terrorists”. The UIF’s annual report highlights the high number of reports “relating to remittance networks carried out by possible terrorist facilitators through the use of money transfers and prepaid cards”. Even more alarming is the «growing number of cases involving the use of platforms active in the intermediation of crypto-assets (virtual currencies, ed.) to carry out transactions with wallets (digital wallets, ed.)» connected to «international lists of subjects sanctioned”.
The Financial Intelligence Unit has turned the spotlight on the «risks of contiguity to the financing of terrorism, especially when the criminal phenomena involve the so-called “near abroad” or transfer routes of people or goods that involve Italy (trafficking of migrants and recycling)”. There Bank of Italy underlines that the migratory routes are «logistically functional for the transport of possible foreign fighters or returnees (jihadist volunteers, ed.), as well as the possibility that some channels of transfer of financial flows (money transfer and informal sectors such as the hawala) can be used both by criminal organizations as well as terrorist ones”.
Alessandro Locatellieconomist of the foundation Icsahighlights that «the routes are more or less the same for all illicit trafficking, especially in the North African and Sahel areas. Terrorist groups collect a toll on the stretch they control from human traffickers.” Locatellihowever, adds: «The limit is that the Bank of Italy carries out controls only on national territory. The bulk of terrorist financing comes from drug and oil trafficking exploited above all by ISIS. A less dangerous business for jihadist groups is that of cigarettes and also protected animals traded mainly in Asia, in addition to the plunder of cultural heritage.”
The latest Financial Action Task Force report from October 2023 lists the cases that reveal the hidden part of terrorist financing. The chapter on «Exploitation of humanitarian, charitable or non-profit initiatives» which are based mainly on crowdfunding, mass fundraising, is enlightening. In July 2023, the Canadian Police charged Khalilullah Yousuf and some complicit in running a support and recruitment network for ISIS Khorasan, which planned attacks on embassies in Kabul. «Yousuf carried out several fundraising campaigns on a crowdfunding platform pretending to raise money for charitable purposes” reads the report. In the trial, still ongoing, it was found that “the defendants collected and transferred approximately 35 thousand dollars in cryptocurrencies and other electronic instruments to bitcoin wallets and accounts” to finance ISIS. Peanuts compared to the Parisian non-profit organization, which was officially created «to improve interactions between young French people with different cultures and organize trips for language learning purposes». In 18 months, “one million euros” was paid into his bank accounts in France through international payment service platforms, another 40 thousand thanks to crowdfunding, 200 thousand in cash, 700 thousand with checks from individuals or companies. Part of the funds were diverted to a radical Islamic movement thanks to the close ties of three members of the nonprofit’s board of directors.
Another case discovered by Faft-Gafi concerns «crowdfunding through anonymous prepaid vouchers», which made it possible to raise 250 thousand euros in 10 months. The funds were used to help ISIS jihadists detained in Kurdish camps in Syria escape. There Financial Action Task Force has a blacklist of countries for money laundering and terrorist financing. The first three are Iran, North Korea and Myanmar, followed by a “grey list” with 21 nations from Venezuela to Croatia up to Syria, Yemen and Vietnam.
Icsathe foundation on intelligence culture and strategic analysis, has discovered that the terrorist attacks on European soil during the years of the Caliphate «were not wasteful. Amounts of a few thousand euros were enough, which do not require financing from the “parent company” and can come from personal loans and salaries or from the profits of petty criminal activities”. Around forty jihadist attacks cost an average of nine thousand euros. For the most complex attack in Paris in 2015, which caused 138 deaths, 30 thousand euros were enough. Amedy Coulibalywho seized hostages in Paris, had financed the operation with a loan of 15 thousand euros thanks to false pay slips. Not only that: «Student loans have proven to be a convenient way to finance the trips of foreign fighters to Syria» he underlines the Icsa. Hezbollah he even founded a bank, Al-Qard al-Hassanwhich on October 20 was bombed by the Israelis in Beirut and throughout Lebanon where there were branches.
Avichay Adraeespokesman for the Jewish State Defense Forces, accused the bank of “financing Hezbollah’s terror operations by purchasing military equipment and paying military salaries.” In the underground vaults millions of dollars, much gold and jewels were kept, as collateral from customers for loans. Since 1983 the bank has supported families and businesses with 4.3 billion dollars. The attack on Al-Qard al-Hassanwhich means “benevolent loan”, would have ruined between 30 and 40 percent of Hezbollah’s cash. «The financial network of the Party of God, however, goes far beyond Lebanon and is also active in Latin America» he reveals Giacalone «with a strong presence both in Venezuela and in the “Triple Frontera” between Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. And in Europe too.”
